Our trip to Kansas City and Independence, Missouri

Thursday evening Ian and I went up to Kansas City to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform! It was amazing! We caravaned up there with members of our ward consisting of Tom and Brenda Geeding and their family and the Claypool family as well! When we got up to KC we stopped at Crown Center Plaza and ate at Fritz's restaraunt. Fritz's is a hamburger place and when you order, your food is delivered by a small model train on a track near the ceiling! Awesomeness!!!

We had so much fun goofing off too!!

When we got to the Sprint Center we found a bunch of protestors...we weren't even quite sure what or who they were protesting...if they were protesting us, they certainly needed to do a bit more research on our religion and beliefs! It was funny though!

After the awesome concert Ian and I separated from the group and stayed the night while the others continued home. We ended up getting lost in the bad part of Kansas City but gratefully found our way to Independence where we found a motel room! Finally! :-)

Friday morning found us at 8:30 am and already 90 degrees! Boy we picked the perfect day to go sight seeing! HAHA! We started out trying to find the temple of the church formerly known as the RLDS church now called the Community of Christ. It was an amazing piece of architecture! Stunning to look at on the outside and like a beautiful art museum on the inside!

After the tour of the RLDS temple we walked out and in the courtyard they have map of the world layed in brick! Ian stood on Hawaii...I guess now he can say that he's been to Hawaii! LOL!

We walked across the street to the Church of Christ and the empty lot where Joseph Smith had a revelation that a temple should be built there. We had a great conversation with a guy that says he's an apostle of the Church of Christ and got to see the actual stones that were uncovered at that sight! Ian bought some booklets and some postcards from him and we went out to take some pictures! We were awesome tourists!

We were going to go up to Liberty Jail about 20 minutes north but by the time we were done here we were so hot! It was in the upper 90's and we don't have A/C! So we decided to head back....but got side tracked when we saw an antique mall up on Noland road! LOL! Had to stop in! Ian found a really old catcher's mitt and I found a ton of stuff that I'd love to decorate with! Well, that'll be the day!

Fun with Ginny and Savannah's graduation!

p>Yesterday, I took a little break from editing some photos and Ginny and I went outside for a "photoshoot"! She was the photographer...unfortunately all the pictures that she took didn't turn out...we forgot to switch the camera off of Manual function (my bad). But we did do some pictures of us by ourselves and I caught a really funny look from her.

Then last night we attended Savannah's Kindergarten Graduation...it was sweet. They played a slideshow of all the kindergarteners in it and then they brought up the classes one at a time and presented them with their diplomas. Savannah is excited to be going to 1st grade next year! We're so proud of her...even though it makes mom sad to see her grow up so fast!

H.R. 875 New Farm Regulations

There has been a lot of buzz recently about H.R. 875, it seems that a lot of people here in Farm country are scared to death, afraid that they won't be able to grow their own gardend. They are trying to blame Obama for it. First off, President Obama's wife started a small farm at the White House. Why would he want to eliminate them?

I recently started research on H.R. 875 on the suggestion from a sister from the ward. I found some interesting things on it. THere are some good and some bad. While some farms might be negatively effected, it won't be the really small farms, or the home farmer. I found one website ran by an organizaton called "Food and water watch", a group that has been around since 2005.  And according to their website www.foodandwaterwatch.org:

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Food & Water Watch works with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate policies that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers, and groundwater.

On their site they discuss H.R. 875 and they give some good information on it. Here is a cut and paste from their site. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/background-on-h-r-875

Here are a few things that H.R. 875 DOES do:

-    It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies –one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.
-    It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of inspection on the risk of the product being produced – but it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees.
-    It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.
-    It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

And just as importantly, here are a few things that H.R. 875 does NOT do:

-    It does not cover foods regulated by the USDA (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, catfish.)
-    It does not establish a mandatory animal identification system.
-    It does not regulate backyard gardens.
-    It does not regulate seed.
-    It does not call for new regulations for farmers markets or direct marketing arrangements.  
-    It does not apply to food that does not enter interstate commerce (food that is sold across state lines).
-    It does not mandate any specific type of traceability for FDA-regulated foods (the bill does instruct a new food safety agency to improve traceability of foods, but specifically says that recordkeeping can be done electronically or on paper.)

So, while some farmers may need to worry, the home farmer or the farmer who grows their own goods to sell for themselves need not worry. 

The Obama administration most likely does not represent the end of the world. Sorry to dissapoint. :-)

Two new additions to the family!

Today we welcomed two new bunnies to our family. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision. I had a random thought, "I wonder if the farm supply store has their annual bunny litter yet...". Well, we decided just to go and look, because that's what we do, we look...but this time, we bought! It was sweet! Hyrum had gone with Grandpa fishing on the Arkansas border so we brought them home and surprised him.

Ginny and Savannah named the white one "Katie", from the movie, "Horton Hears a Who" and Hyrum named the black and white one, "Bunnicula". I guess it's a book.

They have warmed up to us...but as for Maggie...well, I think that they know that she wants to eat them! Maggie will lay there staring at the cage for hours...probably thinking, "Now why on earth would they bring two things that I'm bred to kill into this house and not expect me to actually act on it?"

She's right, it is rather ironic that we would have a dog that was bred to hunt rabbits and have rabbits too. Well, she'd better make friends really fast! Because these bunnies aren't going anywhere! :-)

Oh and Congratulations Amy and Joey! I'm excited for you! We love you and wish you all the very best with baby Kaitlyn!

Composting!

On Wednesday, the weather was beautiful! Ginny and I were able to get out of the house and do some work in the the garden and start our compost bin. Ginny loved making the newspaper into shreds! While we were doing it, she learned what to and what not to put in the bin. She even found a worm for me!After we did the compost bin, I had some trees that I had cut down and pulled out of the ground just lying around the yard waiting to be put on the street to be hauled away...I had an idea...I am going to be planting peas and beans and they need trellesses to climb. I have saved myself some money now because I have stripped those trees of their dead foilage and I'm going to put them inot the garden as the trellesses! I'm excited!

Thursday, before it rains I'm going to get out and plant these lettuce seeds...Spring is on it's way!

YAY! My Garden is Tilled!

Well, today has been a busy day...The car broke down again and the Hale's graciously came and rescued me again! Anyway...
The good part of today was that we got the garden area tilled and ready to be planted...I need to go get some compost and manure and start my seeds! I'm going to go get some buckets too, so that I can have patio tomatoes and i'm going to do the same with my cucumbers as well...I took some pictures of the tilled area and the dirt looks so good and rich! I'm so happy with it!

HAHA! What can I say...

Well, the Shop called about the car! Apparently our gas gauge is broken! They said that all they did was put a couple gallons of gas into it and it started right up...So, yeah we paid someone out the ears to tell us that all we have to do is put gas in the stupid thing! Curse it all, but hey at least it's not something expensive! HAHA! I just laugh at it and say, such is my life! Whatelse can I do? It is almost at 200,000 miles, so yeah...I'm sure we'll have more days(or weeks) like this!

When it rains...it pours!

So, we spent today trying to figure out what we're going to do about our broken down van...yeah broken down. I was literally feeling sick to my stomach today...it being our only working and "legal" vehicle right now. It just really sucks.

It's times like these that we are so thankful to have friends like the Hale's. They were so kind and wonderful enough to give us a ride home last night and to tow the van to the automotive place.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll find out what's wrong and we'll be able to find out a price. I'm praying that the price will not be expensive. I'll have more tomorrow on the verdict!

Yesterday...

It's official! I'm official. My new website is up and going! I just have to work on pricing. I think that's the hardest part of photography for me. I have guilt issues! So I'm working on that today and hopefully tomorrow I'll get my business cards.

The weather has been wonderful for the last couple of weeks! I was able to go out and uncover the ground where we're going to put the veggie garden and yesterday I pulled a dead tree out of the ground where we're going to put the kids playset. I can't wait until I'm able to go out and start planting but first we need to till the ground and we can't do that until the dirt dries up a bit. I'll post pictures when we start doing the work on it. I'm going to keep a photo journal of it.

And for some sad news...there is a family in the ward that we've started becoming really good friends with and now have heard that they're moving. It's really hard for us to make good friends so this has hit us pretty hard. We love the Hale family so much and love their ideas. They have accepted us for who we are and around here it's hard to find people that are true and don't stab you in the back. I'm excited for them because they're doing what they want to do but I'm going to miss them greatly because most likely we'll never see them again. They are giving us their piano though so we'll have something to remind us of them. Not to mention the pictures...:-)

Anyway, I'll have more on all of the above in the future. Here's the web address if you're interested...www.heartlandimagesofmissouri.smugmug.com

Whoops!

K, so yeah, I totally crapped out on that challenge didn't I! Sorry if you really were following along...thinking that nobody was though! :-)

Day 6...Scripture Study Challenge

Day 6...

Scripture thought for the day:
"Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believe." Mark 9:23

Thought for the day:
"I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident, they came by work."--Thomas Edison

Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 10-19

Scripture: mark and ponder 2 Nephi 11:17

Day 5...Scripture Challenge

Yesterday we read about the death of Ishmael and the many, many, many murmurings of Laman and Lemuel! I tell you what, those boys need to be smacked around! And then when Nephi broke his bow and couldn't hunt food...come on guys, use your brains...you are older than Nephi...they are so lazy! That's proven when Nephi is told to build the ship and they didn't want to help...it wasn't that they didn't believe...they were making excuses for their laziness! And how incredibly rude of them to tie Nephi up on the ship during that storm and put the lives of their families in danger...they had children and yet they were stubborn and wouldn't heed the words of Nephi! If I were them I'd be puttin on my lighting rods!

Alright, I know you've been waiting for...

Day 5...Dududu!

Scripture thought for the day:
"I the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." D&C 82:10

Thought for the day:
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier--not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our ability to do so has increased."--Heber J. Grant

Scripture Study: 2 Nephi 1-4

YAY!! We're into 2 Nephi now! Now we're movin!

Day 4...Scripture Study Challenge

So yesterday we read about Nephi being granted the visions of his father...he saw the tree of life and the restoration of the church and the revelations of John and the New Testament. It was awesome...Here's todays...

Day 4

Scripture thought for the day:
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matthew 6:6

Thought for the day:
"If you are going to leave footprints in the sands of time you must wear work shoes.
-LeGrande Richards

Scripture study: 1 Nephi 16-18
Scripture: mark and ponder 1 Nephi 17:3

Pictionary fun...

Last night was Hyrum's turn to plan Family Night...He did a great job! We played Pictionary and the kids had a lot of fun. We're trying hard to have Family Home Evening every week and for two weeks we have succeeded. Here's a little snipet of our fun...

Day 3...Scripture Study Challenge...

After reading of Laban's end and Lehi's vision of the tree of life and the vision of the coming Messiah I am ready to read on...

Day 3

Scripture thought for the day:
"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie unto the Lord that he may watch over you in your sleep, and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."-Alma 37:37

Thought for the day:
"If you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right."-Eleanor Roosevelt

Scripture study: 1 Nephi 11-15

Scripture: mark and ponder 1 Nephi 14:1

Day 2...Scripture study challenge

Alright for those of you following along...here's the...

Scripture thought for the day:
"And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord."
D&C 68:28

Thought for the day:
"I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun at noonday-not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else."-C.S. Lewis

Scripture Study: 1 Nephi 4-10
Scripture: (it got cut off by the copy machine so I don't have it) Sorry! :-)

30 Day Scripture Challenge...Feast Upon the Words of Christ...

Today is the beginning of our 30 day scripture challenge...

It's from relief society...but if anyone wants to do it too, I'll post the daily scripture and a couple of thoughts for the day...

Here's DAY 1...

Scripture thought for the day:
"...For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray." 2 Nephi 32:8

Thought for the day:
"The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could be."
-John Grimes

Scripture study: Title page-1 Nephi 3
Scripture: mark and ponder 1 Nephi 2:19

I'm off on my scripture study quest...if you want let me know if you're doing it too by commenting...

Finally...the party is over!

That's right...I said it...FINALLY! :-) We celebrated Ginny's birthday today with the family and friends. It was fun, don't get me wrong...it just leaves me a nervous wreck by the end. To everyone who came...thank you for coming and especially for the help! Ginny had a lot of fun and that's all that matters! We started out with pizza...everyone must have been hungry because by the end we didn't have a single piece left and not even crumbs on the plates! Afterwards we played musical chairs and then pin the M on the M&M...

After the games we did the cake (which was really a brownie...Ginny's choice). Though by the time we lit the candles Ginny had popped a piece of candy in her mouth and couldn't blow...so we waited....and she finally got enough wind through the food in her mouth to blow them out! It was funny...The brownie was good...it was made vegan with the exception of the m&m's so that the Hale's could partake too. After the cake/brownie she opened presents and got some really awesome stuff...She got a book of paper and some twist up crayons and a my little pony "incentive calender", Some really cute, cute clothes, a shopping cart with food, a little dolly in a purse, a barbie, a my little pony and a bucket of play-doh. Yes, play-doh...I got it for her so that when her brother and sister are at school she'll have something to do...she does love her play-doh!

Thanks to the family for coming again...you made is special!

And a very special thanks to The Hale family for coming...it was a blast! And thanks for helping with everything! We love you!

And special thanks to Pizza Hut for letting us come and invade their quiet restaraunt!

Happy 4th Birthday Ginevra Arwen!

I can't believe it's been 4 years since our little Ginny made her debute in the world! She has grown so much! It's amazing how fast they change too and you don't even realize it until you look back at pictures... Infact this is her one year ago! Her face has matured so much and not to mention she's two clothes sizes bigger this year!



This year will be such a fun year...we're only doing the one birthday but she's able to have friends from church at her party. We've invited, Abby, Wyatt, Marius, the Hale Family and of course the family...grandma and grandpa, the VanSkike's, and Holly and Michael too. It's going to be fun! Everyone will be filling up the back room at Pizza Hut and enjoying the M&M themed party! I'll post pictures on saturday after the party...

But last night was her official birthday so we celebrated at DQ and she got to pick anything she wanted off of the menu...the rest of the family only got to enjoy a plain ice cream cone...She chose a blue raspberry Arctic Rush! And her teeth were definately blue by the end of the evening! It was a fun night and we just want to say...HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY GINNY!!!

The Family Blog...

Well, we've decided since our family and friends are so far away from us, we'd set up a blog to let everyone know what's going on in our Funtastic life!

The weather here has been icy cold! We haven't had much snow at all when the rest of the country has gotten pounded but the windchills have certainly reminded us that even without snow or ice, Jack Frost is still here!

Today however, it is nice...it makes us want the springtime so bad...even if it does come with the threat of being carried away to the land of Oz! Hey, we are just 30 minutes from the border of Kansas!

We're loving it here. We're hoping soon we can buy a piece of land and start our little Hobby Farm that we've (I've) been talking about!

Ginny turns the big 4 tomorrow! We all know what that means...trip to Dairy Queen where the birthday girl gets to pick what ever she wants on the menu and we just get a lousy cone while we watch her eat to her hearts content! Saturday we'll have a birthday party for her at Pizza Hut where the theme will be "M&M's" and there won't be a cake...but a giant M&M cookie!

Savannah and Hyrum are going on their 100th day of school in about two weeks! It's hard to believe that my kindergardener is almost a 1st grader and my 3rd grader almost in 4th! They grow up so fast!

We'll be signing Hyrum up for baseball soon and that means Rodeo time again! I can't wait! I plan on attending more this year...and not to mention we get in free in Fort Scott at the College where Ian works!

Our church callings are going good...I only have 1 and it's one that I do truly enjoy...Young Women! Ian's got 5 callings currently...they're planning on releasing him from at least 2...but for now he's the Boy Scout Assistant Leader, Family Search teacher, Elders Quorum 2nd councelor, Cub Scout Master, and Sunday School teacher for the 12-13 year olds! Crazy!

I'm excited about this blog...let's see how long I can keep it up faithfully! That's one of my goals for 2009, to be better organized and stick with things! LOL! We'll see if I can stick with that one!